房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Burushi shouted while opening a door to yet another room in the Banemor mansion, before finding it empty and calling out to equally worried Benevirau.

"I don't sense him anywhere within the estate... could he go to the city...?"

The dark-blue-haired butler shook his head, biting his lips, and silently enlarged the area covered with his mana-infused mist.

"He can't use his mana properly and he can barely walk, how would he get there?!"

The blond girl shook her head and complained In powerless anger.

It has been only a few days since Zoemi woke up from the nine-month-long coma.

In the morning Benevirau got the black-haired boy breakfast and he has eaten it with a smile as he was slowly regaining his appetite.

The thing is when sometime later Burushi showed up in Zoemi's room to supervise him as the boy was relearning how to walk, only to find the room empty.

With a patient suddenly gone, the healer magician raised an alarm, which led to her, Benevirau, and the gardener looking for the young lord of the Banemor family all over the place.

But he was nowhere to be found and they were getting quite worried, even desperate.

"What an idiot! What is he thinking, not telling anyone what is he planning to do and just disappearing on me like that! I am going to kill him when he gets back!"

Burushi was mumbling to herself furiously while clenching her fists with a terrible feeling in her stomach.

"...what if he didn't go on his own... what if the Ghosts of Bellcephora got him...!?"

Suddenly even worse explanation came to the girl's mind, making her straighten her back and stare into the distance with utmost fear.

"(Miss, Miss...! Here!)"

"...?!"

Suddenly, while Burushi was running from room to room even though they have already searched the entire mansion, she suddenly felt a slight pressure rubbing off against her head and heard a worried voice.

She immediately looked around in search of it, even though she realized that it was a message spell.

"Eh...?!"

But it turned out that her search wasn't in vain - she noticed a murky-black orb surfacing out of her shadow...

Which honestly was enough of a surprise on its own but then the orb seem to swirl around its own axis and brought up something else from within the girl's shadow.

It was the murky-black plush bear that Zoemi created to protect her before!

"(Miss, you are worried, here.)"

"(Don't worry, Miss. Master is safe!)"

To make it even more unbelievable, a second orb surfaced and both of them started speaking to the blond heroine who honestly looked as if her brain short-circuited from the sight she had to take in.

"(Miss. Here.)"

"(Here, here!)"

The orbs called, communicating via the message spell and both of them pushed up the murky-black toy, clearly wanting the girl to take it.

"..."

Burushi blinked repeatedly, staring at the timid orbs with the appropriate amount of disbelief.

"...what are you...?"

She did not take the shadow toy bear, but she did not run away either, and instead, settled for gulping down her saliva and asking in a confused voice.

"(We are Master's sentinels! Don't you remember? He gave us to you so we could keep you safe!)"

"(Safe!)"

The more talkative orb cheered and explained happily while the other settled to just echoing the last word that the first one said.

"You...!"

Burushi gasped – indeed, Zoemi did gave her the sentinels to protect her from getting bullied, but it was back during the tournament.

The sentinels did not try to contact her before!

"Hold on – if you can talk then why didn't you talk to me earlier?! I could use your help in tose past months, you know?!"

The blond girl shook her head and her brows furrowed at the realization that indeed, the murky-black orbs were indeed the ones she received from the black-haired boy.

"(We did protect you!)"

"Eh...? When?!"

The more talkative orb said grumpily, causing the blond girl to lean back and stare at it in disbelief.

"(Back in the Academy, during the night some guy kept showing up in front of your room and tried to use some weird spells on you! We protected you from him!)"

The orb declared still in disbelief that the blond girl could have doubted them over something like that.

"Wh... what...?! Wait – is that why I never met the mysterious supporter again?! It was your doing?! Wait...!"

Burushi gasped in shock and looked to the sides as if she was checking whether someone was listening to them or not.

"So, do you know who exactly was that guy? Was it Arisu?!"

Her eyes widened and she kneeled down by the orbs and the plushie that they were still holding up to her and asked.

"(Arisu...?)"

The more timid orb asked in confusion while using the murky-black bear as a shield separating it from the blond heroine.

"(Sorry, Miss. We weren't tasked with surveilling your surroundings like that. Only to her protect you directly. We didn't investigate the identity of that guy.)"

The more chirpy orb explained, moving forward and taking Burushi's attention away from its timid friend.

'O-oh... I see...."

Burushi opened her mouth and closed them immediately without peaking even half of the words that came to her mind.

"Alright then... now – you said that your master is safe – you mean Zoemi, right?"

The blond girl sighed and let go of that subject, changing it to the matter at hand.

"(Yes! Master is testing the spell assist!)"

"...!"

Surprisingly enough, it was the more timid orb that pushed forward and answered the heroine's question shocking both Burushi and its friend.

"(Sorry... here. Moral support, don't worry now – bye!)"

*thump*

"!!!"

Judging only by how its voice sounded through the message spell, the timid orb got flustered over its own sudden boldness and launched the murky-black toy right into the heroine's face, startling her and taking enough of her attention away so that it could jump back to its friend and push it back down into the shadow and disappear form the outside world.

"H-hold on! What is that spell assist?!"

Burushi instinctively grabbed the toy and hugged it, moving it out of the way, but it was already too late, both orbs were gone, and neither responded to her call.